


Void and Silk

by MarquessHilda



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: AU, Alternative Universe where Hornet and Ghost navigate Hallownest together, Angst, Fluff, Gen, Ghost has a name, Ghost is adorable and Hornet struggles, Hornet commits crimes, Hornet is indeed a spider, I HC none of the vessels are actually mindless, More characters may be added as they appear if they have a significant role, Redemption, Self-Hatred, Siblings, There's some fights but I keep the descriptions of violence to a minimum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarquessHilda/pseuds/MarquessHilda
Summary: The Dreamer plan is clearly failing, Hornet is confronted with the fact that all the vessels did have a mind, which places her firmly in murderer territory. Now, along with Ghost, they must think of another plan while making up for all the lost time, all while guilt consumes her.This fic takes place during the events of the game and diverts from it in that all the vessels have a mind and Hornet realizes it in time to be Ghost's big sister. Lots of cute fluff and family time (and a lot of angst) ensue
Relationships: Hornet & The Knight (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 70
Kudos: 148





	1. What is it to have a mind?

**Author's Note:**

> I felt inspired to write a fic like this exploring the characters and also having them be happy for once. At least in this chapter, I failed miserably at that second part.

Before her, a vessel stood.

It was rare for a vessel to make it all the way to Greenpath, but every once in a while, one would manage to sneak past her patrols and just barely escape ending up in the stomach of one of the beasts that populated the old kingdom. She was just one bug, after all. It was impossible to keep watch of so many different places at once without some slipping by.

Hornet was well aware of the origin of the vessels, and of the fact they were technically her half-siblings, but she didn’t feel anything towards them. Why would she? They were nothing more than mindless walking chunks of void. Hell, aside from physiology, they weren’t much unlike the infected husks that wandered Hallownest. Killing them was probably a mercy, to rid them of their cursed existence.

And so this tiny vessel stood in the corner of that wide, overgrown chamber, multiple stone pillars dedicated to an old god were strewn about half toppled, moss slowly climbing up its surfaces and obscuring the old writings. The vessel’s cloak-like wings were far longer than usual, draping on the floor, impressive that this one made it this far without tripping and dying on some pit or sinkhole. Its cold, void eyes stared directly into Hornet as it approached. She, in turn, narrowed her eyes in a mix of pity and distaste, refusing to face it directly. The tiny vessel drew its nail, challenging her to battle.

“How Pathetic.” She thought, wondering where these vessels kept finding those nails and why they were always so lousy. They seemed to have an attachment to broken things.

“I know what you seek to do, and I cannot allow it! You’ll regret ever leaving those darkened pits-!!” She was interrupted when, in the span of a second, the vessel leaned forwards and flared its wings, displacing the air behind it and propelling forwards in a dash, hitting Hornet cleanly in the chest and sending her stumbling.

She gasped, a mix of shock and laughter, “You are more agile than I thought.” She scoffed, placing her hand on her wound. It hadn’t even made a cut, even with her cloak on the way it proved how dull the vessel’s nail was. Still, that spot was going to be sore for a while.

The vessel tried to lunge at her again, but now without the element of surprise, Hornet was aware enough to evade its attacks. It would be impossible to hit her now. She danced and weaved around it at rapid speeds while it tried to accompany her. Gazing at the vessel’s dull blade she had an idea: holstering her needle, she wanted to do something different. 

She circled the vessel and looked for an opening, stopping at some point to get a look at her prey, who now stood at the center of the room. Staring into its eyes she saw that same expressionless face, like a vacant crawlid, holding onto its tiny nail now with both hands; its stance was broad yet shaky. 

Finally, it primed for its final dash, Hornet pounced along in its direction and got a hold of its nail, flipping it so it faced backwards, and then, with a final movement, launching it deep inside its chest with such force it cut right through its void body, pinning it to a rock behind it.

The vessel barely even realized what had just happened, but slowly its head fell backward as its void body started boiling and shaking, its mask glowed brightly as the void it contained slowly melted off into a sizzling puddle, a large crack forming across one of its eyeholes as its life essence finally escaped it. It was dead.

Before Hornet, a broken shell stood. 

…

Did she… refer to it as ‘prey’? 

She shook it off and made her way over to the nearby stag station, upon arriving, she sat on a bench and pulled from a hidden pocket in her cloak a needle and thread. But hindsight slowly crept up her mind, impossible to ignore.

Her objective is to protect Hallownest – most importantly the Dreamers and the Temple of the Black Egg – from thieves and wanderers and derelict vessels. It wasn’t a job to be taken lightly, and there was no justifiable reason for her to have taken as long as she did, to not be done with it as soon as possible.

Instead, she lingered on it, after getting struck once she allowed the vessel to keep uselessly lunging at her with no success, before finally killing it with its very own nail. She had gotten arrogant and overconfident in her skills. Sure, all that came of it this time was a sore spot, but it could have been much worse, and although a lesson could be had about that sort of cockiness, her mind was stuck on something else:

She enjoyed doing it.

Try as she might to deny it, she took a sadistic pleasure in watching the vessel struggle against her far greater mobility, watching it from above as she circled it and it kept trying to land a single hit past that first one, not realizing that it was far outclassed, only to then be slain by its own weapon, to be dishonored in such a way. Of course, it couldn’t comprehend the concept of honor, but Hornet could, and she did not fight honorably.

The way it looked right at her moments before its nail was driven through its chest, the way she, for that one moment, saw the vessel as prey, as a creature … It reminded her of… hi-

No. She couldn’t bear to hold that thought… She would never become like him, she wouldn’t allow it. What was she thinking? Even if they’re made out of void… When did she begin seeing her siblings this way? Referring to them as ‘it’?

She checked to see if her cloak's weaving was still in place, trying to calm down, but by now her hands were far too shaky for that. She put down the needle and thread and stared at her hands for a bit, watching them shake. Her chest felt heavy and she could feel her eyes swell up. She buried her face in her claws and there, surrounded only by the overgrown moss of that stag station and her own shame and guilt, she broke down crying.

* * *

“Have you ever looked into the eyes of your prey when you kill it?” Hunter asked, unprompted, perhaps to try to get a conversation going.

“No. I take no pleasure in the suffering of others” Hornet snapped back passive-aggressively. Narrowing her eyes but still avoiding eye contact.

The both of them were sitting in a closed-off corner in Greenpath, a campfire burned between the two of them, and atop it, impaled in a long nail they scavenged from a dead knight, a moss charger was cooking.

“That’s how many start. To hunt is in my nature, and once you have done it for long enough, soon you start taking pleasure in it. Pride, even.” Hunter stated, noticing that Hornet tensed a bit in hearing that, ready to draw her needle at any second. He retreated to his original point. “I’ve found that there are some subtle differences in the way sentient and non-sentient bugs behave in combat” He spoke in a whisper, yet his harsh, breathy voice echoed throughout the cave, making the flames in the campfire tremble, “Creatures without a will keep struggling right until the very end, even the most pitiful, they’ll keep struggling. And when you look into their eyes you see absolutely nothing. These are creatures guided by instinct alone.”

Hornet silently looked at the moss charger, turning it every once in a while so that it would cook evenly. Hunter continued, “Then look at the infected ones. Though once their thoughts were independent, now a hivemind controls them. In their dying moments, they do as the beastly do. Though not guided by instinct, the voice of the infection compels them to keep fighting, since the puppetmaster itself is not at risk, in death, their eyes reflect nothing.”

Hornet subtly faced in his direction, showing that her interest had peaked, yet remaining silent. “Now as for the sentient ones, there is something else. Even the fiercest of warriors, the most well trained – when death stares at them straight in the face, and that death is certain, their eyes reflect it. In their last moments, they stand immobile, some even brace for death. They drop their weapons even before their heart stops beating.”

“Do you think you’d act differently?” Hornet inquired, finally breaking through the silence.

“No. Even if my chances of survival are greater would I keep fighting, I do not believe that is something we can control. Once I get bested by a creature more powerful than me, I see myself doing the same,” Hunter replied, honestly. “I’ve seen many wanderers and warriors and even others like me fall, and I am certain that’s a constant of those who possess the gift of thought.”

Hunter remained silent for a moment before finishing his thought. “The King’s gift to its people was one that provided many strengths, but also imbued us in a fundamental weakness… fear.”

* * *

She was back into the pillar room. The small void puddle had all but disappeared, did it perhaps seep into the cracks on the floor? Evaporated? How could she know? Hornet could only stand there, frowning and thinking of what she had done. She wanted to just disappear – dissolve into thin air like that void just had.

More than just the shame of what she did, her mind was now filled with questions. About her mission, about the vessels, so much stuff… eurgh. She sat down and looked at the vessel’s empty eyes, the back of their mask visible through it as it was no longer filled with void. That area had a small crack of its own, probably from the impact against the rock.

She snapped back to her senses, she couldn’t let herself be overwhelmed. Hornet reminded herself of her mother’s advice: “Deal with your problems one at a time, we can't weave all threads of a web at once, can we? You have to work progressively, one thing at a time, by the end, the unity of all those small silky threads combined will create something beautiful”.

Ok. Deep breath. One thing at a time: The sealing plan clearly isn’t working, as proven by the rapid increase in infection activity. She remembered how in one particular evening, she had a strange dream involving a blinding, all-consuming, light, beckoning her to join it, since then she would only sleep in places far from the infection’s influence. Near the dreamers seemed to be the ideal spot, still, that only made her immune, and she could only run away for so long until the infection was at full force.

So there lied an important question: Why is the infection coming back? 

The vessel somehow had failed, that was the only explanation. Now, why did they fail? Could it be that they were impure? That  _ she _ had gotten to them after all?

She was trailing off, she needed to go to a place where she could think about all of this more carefully; think about what to do with this vessel later, maybe, for now, she could just remove that nail from their cloak? 

Right as she got a hold of the nail, she heard the sound of approaching steps, certain that those did not belong to the mosskin that inhabited the area. She turned around, and at the entrance to that room stood another vessel.

This one had two nubby horns that curved inwards in the manner of a semicircle, their nail looked somehow in worse shape than the previous vessel’s, it had multiple cracks running across it, like it might just break at any moment.

Their void eyes met hers, she was NOT ready to deal with this right now. “Come no closer, Ghost” She barked, drawing her needle in its direction, her voice cracked and the sound came off muted in that wide-open room.

The vessel, in response, drew their own nail, closing in, ready to battle. Her eyes trailed to their pale-white head.

“If the Hollow Knight failed, could it be that they had a mind? ” She wondered, and before she realized the vessel swung their nail at her, leaving her barely any time to react before getting hit in the stomach. So much for fixing up her cloak.

“If vessels have a mind… does that make me a murderer?” Her mind trailed off again, the vessel hit her again. A stomach-turning sensation began to build up that she wasn’t quite sure was from the vessel’s hit or from guilt. She had ended the lives of many husks whose minds were consumed by the light, but this felt different. They hit her again. Ok. Enough getting hit. 

She jumped up and began evading the vessel’s hits, still barely able to keep her mind on the fight.

Did she even want to find out if they had a mind? Yes. She had to, “The bliss of ignorance can only be enjoyed for as long as you aren’t choosing to be ignorant.” She recited in her head, another one of her mother’s wisdoms.

She got hit again.

So therein lies the question, how would she find out if the vessels had a mind? Was there something about their way of fighting that could give her any clues? She got hit again.

She had a plan.

The vessel kept following her every movement, swinging at her any time she got too close. Only now she realized that her movements mirrored the ones from earlier. But this time, though, this vessel couldn't dash and fought defensively, letting her approach before attempting to strike. So her plan had a reasonable chance of working.

Hornet pounced just barely missing the vessel and clinging to a wall, then jumped to another wall, then to the floor again, then to the ceiling. All while the vessel stood their ground, following her moves and swinging whenever she got too close.

Finally, they noticed that Hornet had stopped moving, so they decided to sprint towards her, immediately getting their feet caught up in a near-invisible string, triggering a chain reaction and getting pulled high into the air, several strands of silk closing in and completely immobilizing them.

Hornet watched as they struggled to break off from their silky entrapment, it worked. And now came the hardest part: Lie convincingly.

“Ghost!” She shouted, drawing her needle and placing it by her side, the vessel seemed to respond to the noise, but other than that it kept struggling to break free. 

“You were warned to leave. I am aware of what you are and what you’d try to do, and I cannot allow it! Prepare to die!” She declared, her eyes started swelling up and she felt like crying. She knew she didn’t mean it but just a day ago she’d proclaim these same words in earnest. But she couldn’t falter now, she had to keep the façade going. The vessel kept looking but otherwise did nothing.

She spun her needle in an intimidating manner, pointing it right at the vessel’s forehead. Did they seem to be breathing heavier?

Hornet sighed deeply, placing all her concentration on her needle, and finally, she thrust it at full force.

They flinched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, this was a bit of a prologue. My logic was to roughly outline the universe and choose a starting point, then see where the story goes! Hopefully, in the next chapter we'll get going with the happiness and fluff!
> 
> I love the Hollow Knight characters, mainly the part where, if you look at their actions from up close, they are very morally grey and leave a lot of room for the exact kind of writing I loove to make!
> 
> Leaving a comment would make my day! Thanks for reading anyway!


	2. The excruciating ordeal of introducing yourself after you just attempted to kill the person you're introducing yourself to

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet realizes the vessels were more than mere walking tools and suffers.  
> The vessel agrees to accompany her to a nailsmith after they find out their nail broke during the kerfuffle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially, this was supposed to be a single chapter from greenpath to the nailsmith, but I just had to divide it in two after the story was getting way lengthier than I thought!

Hornet’s eyes widened as her theories were all confirmed. There it was, all the proof she’d ever need right in front of her.

Immediately she checked if she didn’t actually stab them by accident. The vessel was fine, just recoiled and trembling, fully expecting their demise. Once the initial shock passed, Hornet pulled on one of the strings with her needle, making the whole structure come undone. She was trembling, the rush of different conflicting emotions making her dizzy and feel heavy, unable to bear all of this, she collapsed on her knees crying.

The vessel hastily untangled themselves from the now loose pile of silk, jumping off and skittling to the wall opposite to Hornet, expecting her to attack, but just now noticing her, face buried in her hands and sobbing violently.

“Just… Go.” Hornet said, meekly. “I’m so sorry… I-” She couldn’t even think of anything to say, any excuses to give. She felt like she deserved no forgiveness for what she did. The memories of all the vessels she had crossed before stabbing her in the heart.

They seemed hesitant at first, taking a few steps towards the exit but then perking up and coming back like they forgot something. They started frantically searching around looking at the floor, checking behind rocks and bushes... Finally, from beneath the pile of silky strands, they pulled out their nail… well, just the handle.

The vessel held the broken piece of their weapon in their nubby little hands in disbelief, before putting it aside and searching the pile again, one by one finding the remaining pieces.

Once they had a full set, They sat down and stared mournfully at them for a while. Pitifully they moved the pieces closer together until they were in their proper place. Of course, that did nothing to fix the nail’s sorry state, but it still seemed to bring them some comfort.

Hornet watched on, still teary-eyed, that vessel looked so sad. Did vessels really have such a strong bond to their nails? How did she miss this for so long? She felt even more tears push their way through, but now more than ever she felt obligated to comfort her tiny sibling.

She got up and finally pulled the nail from the other vessel’s body, feeling a pang of guilt as she held their empty mask and set it on the floor, right above their cloak-like wings. She didn’t realize it until now how incredibly sore her body was from all the whackings she got during both fights. Looking down she could see that her cloak was a dirty mess too. Slowly she lumbered over to the other vessel, both because of her pain and also to try and communicate that she wasn’t a threat.

The vessel saw her walking to them with a nail in hand and flinched, crawling away from her while maintaining eye-contact. Their masks couldn’t express emotion but the fear was visible in their body language, making Hornet’s guilt even worse.

“I don’t mean harm. Well, no more than I already caused…” Her voice sounded labored and tired and her head was lowered in shame, she extended the nail to the vessel, holding it by the blade “M-maybe you can use this nail instead? Yours was already so old.”

The vessel cocked their head in confusion, still shaking, looking at the nail and then at Hornet, ultimately shaking their head. She understood their decision, now that she thought about it she was also pretty attached to her needle, though in her case it was a gift from her mother. In the vessels’ case, it was probably one of those situations where you get attached to an object the more you use it.

Still, she felt like it was her responsibility to help them with this, it wouldn’t make up for the terror she subjected them to, or the other crimes she had committed, but it’s something, right? And besides, what else was there to do now that she figured the dreamer plan was a bust? At least she could try to look for a solution in the meantime, maybe figure out how vessels behaved...

“Hm, m-maybe there’s still fixing yours, then?” she suggested, voice faltering a bit. “I can take you to a nailsmith and they can…” she looked at the shattered nail again, wincing over its sorry state. “p-probably fix this” The vessel seemed intrigued and nodded, making Hornet feel a bit better.

“I’m sorry, again.” Hornet apologized once more, “I should not have done what I did. I do not expect your forgiveness, but I hope I can try to make it up for you.”

The vessel looked at her but didn’t seem to do anything else, it was hard to know if it was a look of resentment or forgiveness, Hornet heavily suspected it was the former, she deserved it, after all. 

“Alright then, the nailsmith is all the way in the City of Tears so we better get going.” 

At the mention of a city, the vessel perked up and reached inside their “cloak” (Although looking like clothes, Hornet had come to learn they were actually pseudo-wings), pulling out a chunky piece of folded paper and opening it up, revealing it to be a map of the Crossroads and Greenpath, with various colorful pins dotted about, the map, albeit missing certain rooms within those two areas, seemed to be expertly drawn (If not a bit rushed) and lined up near-perfectly with Hornet’s mental map. The vessel pointed at Dirtmouth and looked at Hornet. The town was the closest thing their map had to a city.

“No, that’s not the City of Tears,” Hornet said, “It isn’t marked on your map. It’s a rather large city, unlike any you’ve seen, I’d wager.” She stated, and the vessel seemed to get… excited? As excited as bobbing their body up and down can appear, anyways. It certainly was adorable.

Hornet then realized that was the best opportunity to ask something “Hey, are you able to read this?” She placed her index claw at the text marking Dirtmouth’s name. 

The vessel nodded excitedly then pulled a quill from their cloak, promptly jabbing themselves in the chest with it. Hornet flinched in shock, which then made the vessel jump as they weren’t expecting her reaction. They quickly pulled out the quill, now covered in liquid void, which they used to scribble something on a blank corner of the map, tapping it to get Hornet’s attention once they were done.

She looked at it hesitantly, still a bit startled. They had written something:

_“Was the one who wrote it to mark all the places._

_Did not mean to scare you, void makes for great ink.”_

The shock made her forget that she had asked if they could read, and it was certainly a surprise to find that they could even write! Even if their vocabulary seemed a bit broken. At the same time, that second line filled her with concern, but the vessel seemed to be fairly proud of themselves.

“D-doesn’t this hurt you?” She finally asked, getting answered with a simple shake of the head. Thinking how the whole map was drawn with a vessel’s equivalent of blood made her queasy. But she ended up concluding that it probably made sense, given that their bodies seemed more liquid than solid, anyway.

Her mind jumped to the image of that vessel she killed losing form and melting. She would probably never take that mental image off her or the other countless vessels that met the same fate at her hands, and she deserved to carry that burden wholly. And now she felt sad again.

 _“You are sad, is there a problem?”_ The vessel wrote.

“It’s nothing your like should worry about, tiny ghost,” She said, momentarily swapping to her more antagonistic voice, catching it a bit too late. “Ah! I mean… it’s nothing important…”

“Uh… do you have a name you’d rather be called by?” She rushed to try and change topics.

They cocked their head and poked their chest with the quill again, this time slower to not startle Hornet, then wrote a single word:

_“Name?”_

Hornet had already suspected that the vessels had no name, but this would probably make communicating a bit hard.

“Well, a name is how you refer to someone. If you want to call them, you use their name.”

 _“Is name ‘Ghost’, then?”_ Those words made Hornet’s gut turn with guilt.

“No, No. you choose your own name. Ghost is just… the way I referred to your kind before… uh, I mean, I can help you come up with a name!” Hornet tried her best to keep from saying something she’d regret later.

 _“What is your Name?”_ They wrote, cleverly reusing the single-word question from earlier.

“I haven’t introduced myself yet, did I? My name is Hornet, protector of Hallownest.” They were probably looking for inspiration in her name, or maybe they had a concept of politeness? She shouldn't be making so many assumptions about their knowledge as they clearly seemed quite capable. She chose to omit the part where they were siblings, that knowledge could hold off for later.

The vessel lifted their quill and pondered for a bit, well… a while, actually. Hornet took that to mean they were trying to think of a name for themselves.

“You know, a name doesn’t need to be definitive, you can always change it later if you feel dissatisfied with it.” Hornet suggested after a while, but the little vessel wasn’t having it. They kept thinking until finally, they jumped up, stabbing themselves with the quill again and writing with such eagerness she feared they might accidentally rip the parchment they were writing on.

_“CAN nAme be Moth??”_ The letters were far larger and shakier than all the other writing and blotches of fresh void were dripped all over it, they were bouncing up and down furiously, anticipating her reaction.

“Yeah! That’s a great name!” She said, finally. Moth could barely contain their excitement, they were shaking so violently Hornet actually got a bit worried.

“Um, are you ok? You aren’t dying, are you?” she moved closer in concern, almost jumping when she immediately got wrapped into a tight hug.

This was the first time Hornet _felt_ the void, it felt very cold, and it also felt… liquid in a strange way while somehow still holding shape, as if willed into doing so. That strange sensation made Hornet flinch, which luckily Moth didn’t seem to realize, but as soon as that initial shock passed, she was easily able to return the hug. Moth seemed to calm down a bit as Hornet felt their body shake less vigorously, the excitement was still very much palpable, though.

They hugged for a while, but eventually, Moth loosened themselves, Hornet felt like this was as good a time as any to remind them of their mission:

“Well, we’ve sat here enough, we should be getting up and heading to the Capital- I mean- the City of Tears, they’re the same place.” Hornet felt like clarifying as they probably haven’t heard the city referred to as that before. She had to really hold herself before she started ranting endlessly about how much of a bone to pick she had with it. Who puts a preposition in a place’s name?

Hornet turned her back to pick up her needle, taking the opportunity to take that nail she had offered to Moth back to its rightful owner. She gently placed it beside the vessel’s mask, taking a moment of silence to honor it before turning, only to almost trip on Moth who was eagerly holding up something they wrote.

 _“MOTH IS VERY HAPPY! THANK YOU!”_ That text was written in even larger letters than their previous message.

Hornet felt warm at her sibling’s happiness, but at the same time, that guilt that had been boiling in her the whole day finally became too much to bear:

“How can you be? I just almost killed you! Aren’t you… angry at me or something?” Hornet protested, accidentally raising her voice.

Moth cowered as her voice echoed around the cave, lowering their map and briefly looking like they were shielding themselves with it.

“I’m sorry it wasn’t my intention-” Moth set the map on the floor and grabbed their quill again. Hornet looked at them and saw that they were writing something, she averted her gaze, instead just listened to the scribbling for a long while, each additional second of writing making her grow more and more apprehensive, bracing for what their message could be. Eventually, the sound stopped, and Hornet risked a glance, Moth seemed to be midway through re-reading a decent-sized block of text they had written, once satisfied, they tugged at Hornet’s cloak and coyly presented the text to her. 

All the bracing she had done fell apart the instant she read the first word, and it only went down from there.

_“Yes. Moth does not understand why you are helping, or why you attacked Moth, or why you killed that bug. But you seem to regret it and are helping with nail and even with name. Moth is still scared and angry, but also happy for the help.”_

Hornet’s heart sunk to the floor. _They even managed to piece together that she was the one to murder that vessel_. Moth was completely justified in feeling this way. Why, then, even knowing that was the only reaction they could have had, in her mind she still hoped for something different?

She had nothing to say for herself, she could only lower her head, mouthing yet another “I’m sorry”. 

The vessel eyed her again. _Definitely a look of resentment_ , she thought.

“Let’s just get going, shall we?” Hornet sighed, dragging her words. She lifted the brim of her cloak and checked how dirty it was, concluding that it would probably take some effort to clean, for now, some quick wiping would have to do to get off the excess. At least the weaving was still in place, though she'd probably have to check up on it soon. Moth went to where their nail shards were and awkwardly bundled it all in their arms, clumsily walking to Hornet, who was already at the exit. On the way, one of the nail shards escaped their arms and fell to the floor, they bowed to pick it up and another one fell instead.

“Hmm, that won’t do” she chuckled, her mood lifting ever so slightly at that scene. “Here, let me help with this” She walked over to the bundle of silk that was still on the floor, and with swift, precise movements, fashioning it into a silky cocoon that enveloped the nail shards. From it, she extended a band that allowed it to be carried like a courier pack.

“There, this should be better.” She said, helping Moth into it. They wiggled their body to confirm that it was secured. “May we depart, now? Just follow me.” She signaled impatiently – but still in a friendly tone (t least she thought it was friendly) – as that was the third time already that she called for their departure, the mood was already heavy enough in this room and she’d like it greatly if she could just leave.

Upon leaving, Hornet swiftly jumped to an advantage point and studied the room, this one shouldn’t present much of a challenge, she could spot a single moss charger attempting to hide in the way, normally she’d leave them be but with Moth there with her this would prove to be far more of a challenge. She already had the route drawn out in her head, first, they’d pass through the Fog Canyon, if she was careful enough she’d-

“Huh? What is it, Moth?” She got interrupted by a tug on her cloak. Looking at them, they were pointing towards a stag sign.

“Oh. You opened these? Wait, could the stags even be alive after so long?”

They nodded.

This would certainly make things way easier. They made their way to the station, upon entering, Hornet whacked the bell at full force with the head of her needle, Moth jumped at the sudden loud noise.

“Oh, I’m sorry about this! I did instinctively.” Hornet justified herself. “Back in my youth I took the stations every once in a while to visit my father, mom would let me ring the bell and it was always one of my favorite parts of that journey” She reminisced, being careful not to reveal too much. That’s how you bond with people, right? Telling stories and stuff…

Moth nodded curiously at her story and they both stood silently waiting for the stag to arrive. Hornet then came to the terrifying realization that she wasn’t cut out for this. It was one thing to monologue threateningly at strangers that crossed her path, but this was completely different. After a while longer of that awkward silence that felt like an eternity, the rumble of stag steps echoed from within the wide tunnels, soon filling the room as they finally arrived.

“Little one! It seems you have company.” The stag grunted happily, his low-pitched, powerful voice reverberating in Hornet’s chest. “Ahh, even if it’s just one more person traveling, I’m still reminded of the olden days, back when the crowds of bugs seemed unending.” He lamented.

“We are headed towards the City Storerooms” Hornet declared, she figured it’d be quicker than through the King’s station, plus she did _not_ want to deal with the sentries while Moth was tagging along.

“City Storerooms? I vaguely recall such a place... however, I don’t think I’m able to take you there. It’s been long since I navigated these stagways and much of my memory from then has been lost”. The stag lamented, apologetically, “Your small friend has been slowly opening stations and along with it the stagways of my memories become accessible as well” Hornet noticed that there was a certain hopeful air about him while saying that. She could only wonder what wandering purposeless for so long could do to someone’s memory, so the least she could do was empathize.

“Can we be taken to the Crossroads, then?” She asked, feeling as if she had to reroute her path one more time she’d flip.

“Can do!” He decreed enthusiastically, lying down so the two could climb on his back. First, Moth climbed on, a bit clumsily due to the relatively large backpack they were carrying. And then Hornet leaped, going from the ground directly to the seating right beside Moth. Upon sitting a puff of dust flew upwards from the old cushions. 

Right, these seats probably went unused for a long while, and some dust should be expected. Hornet chose to contain her coughs and thoughts on the matter to not be insensitive, she knew how much these Stags prided themselves in keeping their clients comfortable. They were quite literally born for the job.

The stag rose and took off through the tunnels, their rhythmic steps rocking Moth and Hornet’s body up and down in a rather relaxing manner. Hornet had learned that the stags were trained from a very early age to run this way to minimize wobbling. She briefly wondered if any stags ever wished for something different, rejecting this role that was pushed on them upon birth, perhaps to pursue a different life... Could they even do that? Of course, her mind wasn't exactly on stags, it was more so at the vessels, well, one vessel.

Hornet thought about her previous task: Protecting the dreamers. What would she do now that she realized it was hopeless? What would a plan B even look like? _If only the king had done his job right_ , she shook her head, curbing that thought. And there she was feeling guilty again.

Her look fell on Moth, they were accompanying the ceiling lights with their head, nodding up and down as they moved past their heads one after the other. She felt her heart warm at the sight, and her arms tingled with an urge to hug them, but she didn’t. It’d be better to respect their space for now. 

Her mind fluttered to that hug they had given her once they decided on a name – going past the physical discomfort of touching the cold void, it felt nice to receive affection like that, it has been so long since she did.

Could it be? That maybe, even after all she did, her sibling would be willing to forgive her? In such bleak times, it had been tough to cling to optimism, but a small spark of hope kindled in Hornet’s heart. It allowed her weary soul to relax, even if just for a tiny moment before she snapped back upon realizing the stag’s gentle rocking was making her drowsy.

The stag’s Gallops grew slower as they approached their destination.

“We’re here.” He announced dutifully. Kneeling so the two could get off.

“Thank you for your service.” Hornet bowed, Moth also nodded similarly as they both left. 

Hornet felt her body grow heavy as she walked, and without realizing it, let out a lengthy yawn, which gained her a curious stare from Moth.

“Sorry, today has been a _long_ day” she sighed, “I think we may have to make a stop so I can rest”. Stag rides would always make her sleepy, and the amount of stuff happening today sure made it hard to not feel exhausted.

Moth nodded sympathetically. Luckily a hot spring wasn’t too far away, so she’d have the opportunity to relax while also giving her the opportunity to clean her cloak. As they sauntered along the old corridors a question sprouted in Hornet’s mind.

“Moth, do you need to sleep?” she asked, feeling like she had asked a dumb question, even if a valid one.

They nodded, and then she noticed that their steps seemed more dragged out as well.

“Are you tired right now?” Moth cocked their head and nodded again with slight confusion, like they had been asked the same question twice.

“Well, that’ll be convenient, then! The hot springs close by will be a perfect place to set up camp.” She commented, trying to ignore the embarrassement she was feeling.

They walked a bit in silence, with just the repetitive rumbling of the far away goams for company, both arrived at the hot springs ready to just dissolve into its waters, but it seemed two bugs were already there. Hornet immediately recognized who they were, and she knew they recognized who she was. As they looked at the door and their eyes widened, one leaned towards the other and anxiously whispered something about a princess.

“Scram. Lest I decide to make you.” Hornet ordered, pointing at the door with her needle. The two bugs quickly got up and scurried out. Moth looked at Hornet with confusion, expecting her to say something about this.

“Worthless colosseum types, don’t worry about them.” This left Moth even more confused, they heard this colosseum be mentioned before, but they figured they didn’t want to pry much deeper.

Hornet took Moth’s “backpack” and moved over to the bench while Moth entered the pool, Hornet undressed her cloak and set her needle and the nail pieces aside on the bench then joining Moth in the pool. The warm waters enveloping her body was just what she needed after such a hard-fought day. Moth was doing small splashes in the water and enjoying themselves as well. Hornet sat and got to examine her wounds up close. At first, a searing pain came from the water submerging her wounds. It was truly impressive how none of the hits she got managed to make a cut, though she was still struck with enough force to leave some nasty bruising.

She pulled her head backward and leaned against the pool’s walls, allowing the water to slowly start numbing her pain. Now that the pressure was off, she felt like she might just fall asleep at any moment. 

She then jolted forwards, well-aware of the dangers of falling asleep in pools. Moth wasn’t in the water anymore but was instead sitting on the bench, scribbling something on their map. Did they want to tell her something?

Curiosity overcame her and she got up, “What are you writing?” She asked while walking over. In response, Moth slid sideways to make room for her on the bench and tilted their map slightly her way, signaling for her to sit and watch. She took the opportunity to check up on her cloak.

The weaving was in way worse shape than she expected, and it no doubt wouldn't have been long since it lost its protective properties, if it hadn't already. "If the weavers saw this I would never hear the end of it..." Hornet thought to herself, picking up her (smaller) needle and thread and giving her cloak some much needed repairs.

Moth wasn’t writing anything but were instead charting on the map. They really drew it all themselves… Well, the better part of it, anyway. Some of it seemed to be drawn in charcoal, with void ink traced over it. They were adding the room where she fought them to the map, including a landmark drawing of the pillars from that room, and also… her?

“Is that me?” Hornet pointed at the pointy figure standing in the room. They nodded affirmatively. 

“ _Here is where Moth found you!_ ” They wrote. So the map seemed to also double as a sort of journal, then. They kept adding more rooms they had visited and also marking some of them with more of those colorful pins, the stag station got marked with one that had a purple stag face painted on it, and another with a bench.

Hornet looked again at the cluster of text they had written during their conversations, including that one text that pained her heart, but also the happier ones like their name reveal. The emotion was very much palpable in their handwriting.

“What will you do once the map gets over this part?”

 _“Can erase it later.”_ They wrote, and then demonstrated it by running their hand on the text they just wrote. Like magic, the whole line completely vanished, presumably as the void ink got completely absorbed back into them. Hornet was impressed, but another question then crept into her mind:

“Can’t you write in first-person? Like the words ‘I’, ‘Me’...” She listed, it seemed weird to her that they would know so much but not that.

“ _Don’t know how these are written_ ”

“Huh… really?” She said, bemused. ”Would you like me to show you?” She offered, and they nodded enthusiastically, almost losing their balance and falling off the bench.

Hornet borrowed their quill and wrote the words they were missing, feeling a bit embarrassed by her ugly handwriting, she could have sworn it used to look much better…

“ _Thank you for teaching me!_ ” They wrote, already making use of the new words.

“Where ever did you learn to read and write that didn’t have those words?” Hornet finally asked, curiosity killing her. Moth took a while to finish writing their answer, showing her once they were done.

“ ~~ _Moth_~~ _I learned by looking at the street signs and reading ancient tablets. They never use the ‘first-person’_ ” 

Hornet was dumbfounded, Moth was an incredible learner!

“Wow… You are very smart to have learned all that without so much as a teacher!” Hornet complimented them, and they lifted up their head looking really proud of themself.

The two of them kept doing small talk while they both worked on their respective projects, Hornet would always make sure to ask yes/no questions so that they wouldn’t have to stop working on their map to write. Once Hornet finished the repairs on her cloak, it looked pretty much brand new again, and she lost no time putting it on. Maybe she could make a cloak like that for Moth? 

“Well, I’ll rest now, tomorrow will be a long day!” Hornet decreed, Moth nodded and stored their map away, nesting themselves in the bench while Hornet laid down at the edge of the hot spring, the warm vapor emanating from it wrapping her like a blanket.

Even back when the infection had just awoken again she felt like the future didn’t hold as much uncertainty as it did now. Turning over she saw that Moth seemed to already be fast asleep. Well, their eyes were still wide open as they always were, but they seemed to be in a fairly relaxed pose, so she assumed they were sleeping. The thought crossed her mind that once Moth had their nail repaired, they would just part ways again, and deep in her heart, she hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

“How did I ever attempt to kill something so adorable?” Hornet mumbled to herself before turning over and sleeping too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed from the fact Moth didn't get the mothwing cloak, in this fic I'm skipping over certain bits of the canon narrative that serve more of a purely gameplay-centered function. This will mostly serve the purpose of focusing on the story being told rather than try to make it a frickin written let's play or whatever. I hope you understand!
> 
> Also I hope you like Moth as a name lol, my logic is that they found a sign talking about the moth tribe and liked the word.
> 
> Leaving a comment on this fic would make my day! Even if you're not caught up with the chapters I love it!
> 
> EDIT NOTE: I made a slight retcon on the story, whereas earlier Hornet's cloak would rip and damage, now it merely got dirty. My idea is that the weavers taught her some of their "spells" and she was able to create an almost indestructible cloak, but those spells require some maintenance so that the threads that keep it working don't get knocked out of place. There were also some other minor changes that aren't really worth changing


	3. Close call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet wakes up. But did she really?

Hornet lumbered her eyes open, still, all that was in her field of vision was more blackness. It would take a while for her to be able to see anything. That’s usually what happened when she went too long outside of Deepnest. She pondered whether she should just go back to sleep. Remembering Herrah’s advice to get plenty of sleep. But she was pretty sure she had gotten all the sleep she could need. What was really holding her down was tiredness.

She stared at the silvery ceiling, she could see the place where a ceiling lamp used to be screwed. No doubt it was removed to appeal to her light sensibilities, which was greatly appreciated. Still, her eyes were overexerted and she’d appreciate it even more if the same was done in the whole palace, but alas.

A meek knocking came from outside the guest room’s door. After a while of no response, it knocked again.

“I have no training to attend to today, why do you have to bother me?” Hornet complained, wiggling under her blankets and trying to muster the strength to leave its warm embrace. “Sigh... The door’s open” She finally conceded, face buried in pillows. The door clicked and opened and the whole room was flooded with light from the outside, making Hornet squint. A small figure was projected against it, moving closer to Hornet’s bed.

_"Don’t be like that, sister! There’s plenty we can do. It isn’t often you come visit me at the palace!"_

Hornet reluctantly rubbed her eyes. Still squinting from the sudden luminance coming from the door, she sat up and looked at her sibling, as always, they were adorned with the silvery robes common of higher class citizens. Theirs had an added multicolored shine which, albeit looking pretty dazzling, still had that uniform-like feel Hornet despised. She’d much rather wear her crimson cloak.

 _“Finally!"_ Moth chirped in their distinctively scratchy voice, clapping their hands together. _“Come, breakfast is ready! Mom asked me to call you.”_

Ugh… it should be expected but Hornet felt tired just at the thought of interacting with both the queen and her father. Conversations with them were just tiring in nature. Well, she’d bite.

Hornet got up and accompanied Moth to the door, taking to the corridors, still squinting from just how bright the castle was. Seriously, it was almost blindingly so. 

“Ugh. These corridors seem to go on forever, and there’s no way to make out where I am” Hornet complained, rubbing her eyes in a futile attempt to get used to the light.

 _“Here! I can help you!_ _”_ Moth said, lifting one hand above their palm. Slowly, void started dripping from the upper hand into the bottom one, they spread the void in their palms and gently applied it to Hornet’s eyes. _“_ _Better?_ _”_ They asked. She opened her eyes and it was like a dark film was overlaid on her vision, although still bright, the light was now much more bearable.

“Ah, thank you.” She said, wiping off the excess void that got around her eyes. It felt warm to the touch, which positively complimented Moth’s personality.

On the way to the queen, the two passed by many corridors, Hornet was still squinting to be able to see anything, but from the balconies, she could see the outside of the white palace, well, barely. It was impossible to see the floor on account of the dense layer of fog surrounding the castle, actually, even the walls and ceiling of the cave were barely visible behind the thick white clouds.

Soon they arrived at the dining room, the White Lady was already seated and expecting them.

“Hello dear!” she said, joyfully. “Please seat yourself. I hope you are having a good time on your visit.” 

Hornet obliged and, along with Moth, they sat at the table.

“We prepared for your arrival by ordering our cooks to get you some Deepnest delicacies. We are sure you’ll be positively impressed”

Hornet eyed the food at the table, they had indeed gotten many of the foods she was used to eating: Dirtcarver steak, garpede larva, among others. “No need for formalities, where’s the Pale King?” Hornet asked, the fact she was squinting made it so she sounded way more hostile than she intended, still, she didn’t intend to sound friendly either.

The While Lady let out a sigh, “Oh Hornet dear, you don’t have to keep worrying about them all the time. He’s been busy supervising Hollow’s training. The big day is fast approaching, and anxieties are firing up among everyone. He especially wants to make sure the vessel is up to the task. But I’m sure everything will go alright.” 

“I know he’s been avoiding me, the coward.” Hornet hissed, licking back a bit of venom.

The White Lady let out a sigh and her semblance became visibly saddened.

“We… understand how hard it is for you, no one is prepared to lose a loved one” She spoke slowly and in a whisper as if each word was laborious to be spelled out. “But… maybe knowing the exact date can give you the opportunity to say goodbye. And besides, she won’t be truly de-”

The White Lady interrupted herself once noticing that Hornet was digging her claws on the table, visibly holding back tears. “We're so sorry.” She said, hanging her head low. They ate their food in silence.

“How is Hollow doing, anyway?” Hornet inquired in shaken breaths, slicing a piece of dirtcarver and placing it in her mouth, following proper dining etiquette.

_“Suffering silently while you allow it to persist.”_

Hornet jumped as Moth turned to face her directly, their voice was projected directly into her brain and it sounded like the scribbling of a quill against parchment paper, yet somehow it was still comprehensible. Wait, it’s been sounding like that this whole morning!

“You’re not supposed to be able to talk.” The White Lady interjected in a serious tone.

 _“You do not have to burden yourself with the fate of the whole kingdom. Nothing can be done_ _.”_ Moth’s whispery “voice” pierced through Hornet’s mind as they stood immobile by her side. The incoherent whispers and scribbles somehow translating into words in her head.

“That’s a lie! I will find a way to end the infection and none more of my siblings will have to suffer!” Hornet protested, banging her claws on the table.

_“What will that take? Do you plan on breaking the seals? Will Moth just become the next vessel?”_

“What! No-!” Hornet suddenly felt her hand being forcibly yanked by the White Lady. As she got dragged out of the dining room she turned to face her. _Were her eyes always bright purple?_ Hornet thought while trying to keep herself standing.

“Come with me.” The White Lady ordered exasperated, and yet her voice wasn’t hers. Hornet felt herself struggling to keep her eyes open, a burning sensation building up as the void placed in her eyes began heating up and the darkness it provided inverted as her vision became brighter and brighter.

It all suddenly clicked in Hornet’s mind. _“Who eats steak for breakfast??”_ She thought. Her eyes were now burning up and the brightness kept increasing, she knew what would happen next. All she could do now was be at the mercy of the "White Lady"’s guidance. She struggled to keep pace with her as she walked faster and faster until Hornet tripped and was being practically dragged through the floor.

“Hear me, you must come to me in the Resting Grounds” She shouted loud enough that Hornet could hear. “Bring the Vessel.” 

As she heard this, Hornet felt herself being lifted up, and with a swinging motion, she didn’t feel the White Lady’s grip anymore. In a panic, she managed to open her eyes for a split second:

She was thrown off a balcony, and the person who threw her didn’t look like the White Lady at all. They looked like...

Hornet felt the warmth of the castle be flushed away by the cold air scraping through her body as she plummeted to the jagged rocks below, which she couldn’t even see on account of the thick layer of clouds, and also she was completely blinded now.

Even with her eyes pressed shut she could still feel her vision growing brighter and even the howling of the winds became muted as an overpowering ringing pierced her ears. _There are no clouds in a CAVE_ , she thought as her limp body rapidly approached the ground. The light was encroaching on her but if she died in a dream, then she’d-

\-----

She fell on her side on the floor, jerking her body awake as her eyes shot open, kneeling beside her and visibly shaken from her sudden movement was Moth, the real one. They cautiously approached and extended her their arm, helping Hornet up and guiding her to the bench. 

Hornet stumbled a bit, still off-balance due to the shock and confusion. She took a deep breath, her vision was normal again, she could see the hot springs and the walls of the cave and of course, Moth, who helped her sit and then moved back to an arm’s length, examining her. Even if they couldn’t talk, their body language screamed the question “Are you okay?”.

she was quite a ways away from the side of the hot springs where she slept, no doubt dragged out of there. Her body was still rocking side to side, balancing itself very poorly. She then placed her claws on her head and looked at Moth.

“I’m fine” Hornet gasped with a weak smile. "It was just a dream."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit of a shorter chapter but I hope you folks enjoyed it anyway! I always wanted to write a dream story like this, I hope I was able to properly capture the disorienting feeling of a dream! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter even if it was a bit on the shorter side, the next one will probably be longer (By the way I'd love to hear your opinions on what chapter length you prefer?)
> 
> As always, leaving a comment is greatly appreciated, especially on older chapters! Liveblogging is my frickin lifeblood.


	4. Lots to think and Old buildings to reminisce on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet tries to process what's been going on in her life as she guides Moth down to the nailsmith, encountering a familiar friend on the way! At the same time, Hornet finds out more about herself as she depends her relationship with Moth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AO3 sure has an... interesting way to deal with copy-pasted formatted text from docs, if you see any formatting stuff please tell me!  
> This chapter ended up single-handedly doubling the word count of this fic! I really hope you all like it and that it wasn't too much of a wait! ^^. I'll try to be more mindful and write more frequently. Also introducing a new addition: Small drawings of certain scenes! It's not much but I hope you all appreciate it!

A drop of water periodically fell from the cave’s rocky roof, a light pour that formed as a result of the warm water vapor from the springs condensing and falling back on the water. As a result of this, the roof was covered in long sharp stalactites formed over decades. 

The relaxing feeling of bathing in those shimmering waters could only be enjoyed for so long before the room took on an oppressive tone, the warm vapors began to feel suffocating, breathing became laboured and the field of vision shortened. A bug like Hornet might also notice how there is only a single entrance and exit out of there, meaning that they were pretty much cornered. In that room that she chose to spend the night in, she sat at a bench, having just woken up from a horrible nightmare, with horrible implications.

Moth joined her at the bench and both of them sat. With deep breaths, Hornet slowly collected her thoughts: The Moth is her dream was right… what would she even do now? Even before Moth arrived the plan was falling at the seams, really, they were just the straw that broke the stag's back. And only now could she finally break out of her denial… And now what was she to do? Moth has a _mind_. They couldn’t replace the vessel even if they tried.

 _The Hollow Knight_ had a mind.

Hornet felt a rage build up within her, an incapacitating sense of frustration that had been contained for years, _decades_ even. Everything she was doing was wrong, her very purpose was crumbling right before her and she just wanted to cry out in sadness and rage – at herself, at that cowardly bastard of a king, at the kingdom itself, everyone. Before she knew it tears started to build up in her eyes and she buried herself in her hands, taking a faltering deep breath that somehow managed to contain the tears. She could _not_ succumb to panic. She wouldn't.

“Did I start acting strange?” She asked, her voice breathy and cracking with emotion as she raised her head. Moth hesitated, fiddling with their hands and then nodded. They reached for their map to write something but they got startled out of it by Hornet.

“I shouldn’t have gotten so careless… WHAT WAS I _THINKING_? Sleeping in the crossroads of all places!” Hornet cried out, throwing her shaking hands to the air. Retracting once she saw Moth coyly attempting to reach for her, placing their void hand on her shoulder. She took an extra deep breath, trying her best to avoid doing something she’d regret later.

“Thank you... for waking me up” She sighed in between contained sobs before hopping off the bench. 

“Alright, we can’t just stay here all day, the sooner we depart the sooner we’ll get to where we need.” Hornet placed both her arms in front of her in a stretching motion, straightening her posture then turning back to Moth. “We do need a meal first- wait... do you have to eat?” Moth answered with a nod.

“Do you prefer raw, cooked, or either is fine?” Moth cocked their head, about to reach for their map when Hornet interrupted. “Clap once for raw, twice for cooked, thrice for either”. She counted with her claws.

They certainly did the motion for clapping three times – albeit _very_ slowly, so the sound was barely there. And it didn’t at all seem like that was due to their void composition.

“if we get the opportunity, we should get you a better way of communicating than this map, and hopefully soon.” Hornet hissed, walking over to where she had placed her needle. “but we will think of something later. For the time being, just follow me, alright?” she ordered, hopping out of the hot spring with Moth hurrying behind her, carrying their backpack.

###  *******

Luckily for them, it didn’t take long until Hornet stumbled upon a group of tik-tiks, casually munching on some pale fern. 

“Shush, I’m going to go for those two” Hornet urged from behind a rock right as Moth caught up to her.

She fixed her attention on two that were a bit farther from the group, attentively studying their moves. She tensed, priming for a jump, and then gracefully leaped high into the air, landing needle-first into the first – shattering the outer layer of their carapace. Immediately she pulled the needle, pressing the second tik-tik against the ground with her foot and stabbing them just as fast, making sure that both died instantly.

The other tik-tiks took about a whole second to notice something was going on and slowly scurried away, the tip-tapping of their legs disappearing into the shadows at a jaunty pace. One tik-tik even stayed behind munching on fern as if nothing had happened. 

She grimaced the remaining tik-tik. One reason Hornet hated the Crossroads was precisely because hunting was so frustratingly easy and unexciting, all the bugs here are four times smaller than her and barely stand a threat. 

But there was also another reason:...

“Ugh.” Hornet revulsed upon removing her needle from the tik-tik's corpse to find that it was drenched in orange goo. She turned to Moth pinching her forehead “Look, this is certainly ‘edible’ but I hope you agree that we better get this repugnant orange goo out.” Moth cocked their head and Hornet took it as a yes.

Hastily she produced a long thread of silk, which she used to tie both tik-tiks in a sort of rope which she hung to a nearby signpost. By stabbing at specific spots, she got both bugs to slowly bleed out all their contents.

Staring at the small bright-orange puddle forming beneath her meal, her mind drifted, hypnotized by the growing circle of warm infection goo. Had she not been awakened by Moth, she’d be overcome with that foul liquid – the main side effect of the infection, and one of the first symptoms… She hesitantly looked at her hand, briefly she imagined her wrists and palms overcome with orange pustules.

Was it really Moth, though? She thought about the White Lady in her dreams, the more she thought about it, the less it seemed like just a figment of her imagination. Someone or something was calling out to her, and she was told to head to the resting grounds… could she be the key to figuring out how to move on from the dreamer plan? It wasn’t like she had any better leads, anyway… The ‘White Lady’ also asked that she bring Moth along, so it would probably be better to have them in fighting condition as well. 

But if they’re so instrumental, should she even trust them with combat?

She felt a tug on her cloak, flaring before realizing it was just Moth that had moved to her side, their steps so soft she didn’t even hear them approach. Seeing them, she snapped back to the world, unsure how long she had trailed off. 

Their nail should come first, and she could see about their fighting prowess later. Either way, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“It shouldn’t take long for them to finish draining,” Hornet started up. “In the meantime, you'll accompany me in gathering some herbs.” she commanded, receiving a nod from Moth as they ran to her side, leaving the tik-tiks to dry up.

As the orange goop’s pour slowly turned to a drip, Hornet led Moth in amassing some ingredients to go along with the meat. Namely pale fern, berries, and other herbs from the rooms that bordered Greenpath. Other than giving orders to Moth and guiding them, Hornet kept quiet, focused only on the task at hand. Soon they were back, both with an armful of plants.

Removing the tik-tik’s shell and slicing the meat came with some difficulty but by using the sharpened tip of her needle it was doable. And once Moth was done preparing the vegetables (with some assistance), Hornet grabbed a large and sturdy leaf and used it as a sort of bowl/plate. And to her surprise, it looked quite appetizing! That is if you brushed off the fact the meat had an orange tinge to it even after drying up, and the taste wasn’t much better.

“Wow,” Hornet gagged. “We did well to get some herbs, this-” She was unable to finish her thought before munching down on some vegetables to get rid of the lingering taste of infection. “It doesn’t taste _bad_ , it’s unpleasantly sweet and sticks to my mouth.”

Moth cocked their head and cautiously approached a piece of tik-tik right next to their mask, wincing as a result.

“Yeah, next time if we _have_ to hunt here in the crossroads, let’s roast the meat first, at the very least” Hornet quipped, putting aside how exactly does a vessel’s sense of smell work.

In fact, Hornet was just beginning to wonder how vessels ate, when she witnessed Moth place a piece of meat just below their mask, doing what can only be described as pantomiming munching by bobbing their head rapidly, and just like that, the food was gone from their hands.

Hornet sat dumbfounded, still unable to quite comprehend what just went on, she caught herself early enough, however. Staring at others eating is distasteful. Asking them how they ate would probably be strange too, so she just kept quiet. Perhaps at a later time?

“We shouldn’t stay still for so long,” Hornet said, picking up her bowl. “Do you think you’re able to eat while moving?” Moth nodded, but still Hornet briefly considered if she should help out by carrying their nail for them. No, she had enough to carry herself.

###  *******

And so the two of them were on their way. Hornet walked ahead, occasionally scaring away any gruzzers that got too close by swinging her needle with one hand and holding her plate with the other, holstering it in between to eat. Hornet felt like she could take on the crossroads creatures with both her hands tied with how ridiculously weak they were. The only notable obstacle was a single aspid who attempted to stalk them from a distance.

Thankfully her aim was pretty sharp even with just one arm.

As the foes along the way weren’t cutting it, Hornet kept herself entertained by trying to strike the right balance between eating the nutritious (yet foul-tasting) meat and the vegetables that’d wash the bad flavor off her mouth. Moth seemed to be doing something similar, which confirmed that they could discriminate between different flavors and have a preference for some of them. 

Really, vessels are much closer to normal bugs than she ever gave them credit for. 

They can fear for their life, feel the searing pain of a nail brushing against their skin, and the pain of losing something dear. They have a sense of creativity, of courage, of empathy, of humor. And even if they _weren’t_ gifted with those abilities, what right did that give Hornet to slay them as she would a beast? To what extent had she been blinded by denial? To not have seen something so obvious as the very nature of her cursed siblings?

She’d need a lot of time to fully rationalize this new situation, for now, all she could do was push forwards. Getting lost in thought could only lead to stupid mistakes, it was bad enough that she got all bruised up from being whacked with a blunt nail for this exact reason back in Greenpath.

It wasn’t long until they arrived at the elevator. Luckily both were finished with their meals by now, so there’d be no problems of food flying everywhere from how shaky this one elevator could get. She threw her bowl to the offside to be taken care of by the passing critters. Moth did the same and hopped aboard the large cage-like structure.

“Can you believe you used to have to pay every time you wanted to go up or down?” Hornet commented, flipping the lever at its center as they stepped in. “Not that anyone can be profiting off these anymore.” She lamented right as the automatic doors slammed shut behind them.

Reflexively Moth turned to face it, seeing that they were locked inside. A deafening rattling of chains rang as the elevator started up, jolting as it unbound from the current floor and began its slow descent, not as a constant downward movement, but as consecutive small drops, no doubt due to the size of each chain link. 

Hornet was aware that this elevator was made for lifting multiple tons of goods at a time, and as such, it didn’t have comfort as a priority as much as raw power, but poor Moth was completely paralyzed. 

“Don’t worry! This elevator may seem unstable, but it’s perfectly safe.” She assured, but it seemed to fly right over their head, their attention was frozen on the shaking floor, legs trembling with each jolt downwards, and both arms stretched wide to keep balance. “Hey! The elevator’s completely safe!” She repeated, this time louder. But it didn’t do much to comfort the tiny bug, 

Hornet just gave up as they kept holding on to dear life. Until finally, the elevator dropped one final time, slamming on the floor level with a loud thud, Moth jumped in surprise and landed mask-first on the floor.

“Are you okay? We’re here! It’s fine! _I’m here!_ ” Hornet cried out, rushing to their side in an instant, momentarily recoiling in surprise at her own reaction, but snapping back and helping them up. Moth’s void body was trembling and their chest expanded and contracted incessantly. 

Moth got up to a sitting position, and Hornet's heart sunk as her eyes caught a sizable crack that had formed between their eyes, extending to their forehead – images of dying vessels flashed in her mind.

" _Your mask! Oh worm, are you ok?!_ " She cried out exasperated, completely abandoning her posture. Moth looked up at her bemused, then shakily got up on their feet. 

Hornet readied her arms in case they fell over, slowly, bright sparks began to form around Moth's body, increasing in quantity and brightness as they gathered around Moth's mask, coalescing where the crack formed. Hornet's eyes were wide, she had never seen a vessel do that and, as far as she knew, it wasn't a sign they were dying. 

The same way they appeared, the particles slowly dissipated and the crack on Moth's mask was gone, filling Hornet with relief.

"Ah! It's fine now!?" She said, relieved yet confused, "can you walk on your own?" Moth nodded, it seems whatever they did also helped them calm down somewhat as their legs weren't shaking as bad.

“I’m sorry for not warning you before. This elevator can be quite bumpy.” Moth stared at her so intensely she could almost hear them say, “You think??”.

“Well, at least we’re here. And like I said, this elevator has worked fine for decades. Its maximum load is way heavier than two small bugs like us.” She reassured, recomposing herself and heading for the exit. Moth fastened their backpack and joined Hornet out of the room.

She waited for Moth at the exit and as they passed she leaned closer to whisper to them. “The bugs here are far stronger than any you’ve encountered, try to keep close to me, and if a battle starts...” Hornet paused, narrowing her eyes and looking deep into Moth’s pitch-black eyes, ensuring they heard her, “...I want you to hide. Let _me_ deal with it.”

They advanced cautiously through a short corridor that opened into an immense storeroom, crates and containers were organized on big rows of shelves that stretched on as far as the eye could see, some were toppled over and the room’s age and lack of maintenance were visible, even the light from the lumafly lamps seemed to falter in that maze-like scape. They traversed along a path marked by ancient tire marks and footprints, frozen in time from when carriages bustled in and out of the city. Hornet walked slower than usual so that Moth could keep up, but also to spot any threats early. She truly hoped they would be lucky enough to not encounter any infected, but before she could finish the thought, heavy footsteps came from farther along the road.

Hornet threw an urgent glare at Moth, who, remembering her earlier advice, scurried between some containers for hiding. Hornet turned to face the sound, which turned out to be a trio of sentries, one of them appearing to be far more corpulent and carried a gigantic nail supported in their shoulders – a heavy. Hornet wouldn’t expect to find a group of them at a place like this. But alas.

The group did not take long to spot Hornet as she made no effort to hide, merely standing in a guarded position. The heavy immediately took on a battle stance and advanced ahead of their two companions, who unsheathed their nails and trailed behind. Hornet hopped high above them to a nearby shelf, seizing her high ground to pounce at the charging sentry, who parried her attack by swinging their enormous lance-like nail in front of their body defensively. With quick reflexes, Hornet footed herself on the flat side of their blade, using it as a platform to launch herself forward and land amid the two other sentries. 

One of them instantly swung at her, getting narrowly parried, and, before they could go at it again, she retributed by lunging her needle on their arm. They flinched and retreated, one of their arms now completely useless. Yet they didn’t seem like giving up anytime before their own demise. 

_“The puppeteer itself is not at risk...”_ Hunter’s words fleeted in her mind as she spotted the heavy sentry charging at her again, the smaller, uninjured, sentry advancing alongside in an attempt to flank her.

Knowing she was somewhat cornered, Hornet jumped up and launched herself at the heavy sentry again, this time predicting their defense, evading it, and landing needle-first in their shoulders. With a somersault, she pulled back her needle and landed facing the second sentry, using the momentum of her fall to propel forwards and cut deep through a weak spot in their armor, launching them on the floor. She retreated in case they could still attack but as their injuries began glowing bright orange she knew she had won. The heavy one still attempted another charge but their strength rapidly escaped them, and they tripped lifeless on the brick pavement. 

Hornet heard movement behind her, turning with widened eyes to see that she had mistakenly assumed all three sentries were defeated, letting her guard down enough for that first sentry she stabbed to be right at arm’s length, midway through a swing with their only arm. She stumbled backward in shock and tensed her body knowing she couldn’t evade in time, when a bolt of warm, brilliant light brushed her side, consuming her entire field of view and leaving her temporarily blinded.

She didn’t feel anything hit her, merely hearing something crash against a wall. Slowly lumbering her eyes open, she found that the sentry was nowhere ahead of her, rather, they were collapsed against a shelf way ahead – white smoke hissing through every crevice of their armor as they laid dead on the floor.

Hornet turned to face the direction the light came from, finding only Moth standing in the middle of the path. 

She had knowledge that Ho- the Hollow Knight had control over soul, but was still surprised that Moth had already learned a spell. Thinking about it, Moth's self-healing ability was probably related to the "focus" she heard the knights talk about. If only she was ever close enough during their training sessions to know anything more than random whispers, but the king was very strict with keeping even the Hollow Knight’s very existence a secret.

“You did this?” She asked already knowing the answer. Moth nodded while shily slipping back to the corner they were hidden, aware that they shouldn’t have left it in the first place. 

Hornet couldn’t be mad that they left since they had saved her. Adrenaline still pulsed in her veins, she checked her surroundings for any more threats, but ultimately didn’t see any.

“You can come out, Moth” Hornet asserted, holstering back her needle, feeling a rush she hadn’t felt in years.

At that moment Hornet was awake. Like in the past weeks and even months she was sleepwalking, and now she felt this jolt of energy she so missed. 

“Thank you for the help, you saved me.” Hornet bowed gracefully, “I didn’t know you had such domain over soul! makes me thankful you didn’t use it against me when we first fought…” She said, lightly glancing at the burnt carapace of the sentry.

“Well, let’s leave now before any more sentries come to investigate the sound.” Moth agreed anxiously, and the two made their way down through a stairway. On the way there Hornet noticed a sign indicating a stag station nearby, Moth seemed to have seen it too. 

“We can go back here later once we’re done with your… nail situation.” Hornet said, and they pushed forwards.

On this note, she remembered that the next floor had an elevator that could take them all the way to ground level... But with Moth’s reaction to their last ride it’d surely be a hard sell. By using the stairs they’d be significantly raising their risk of encountering more of the old infected sentries, but it was a risk she’d have to take.

###  *******

The next floor wasn't as large as the one above. Moth noted that it could be because they were approaching the city's ceiling.

They had barely climbed through the set of stairs when a sentry immediately faced them, at least this one was alone. Nonetheless, past the shock, Moth looked for a place to hide, going back up the looping stairs to the place they curved, hiding just barely within eyeshot of the sentry. Enough to see Hornet skillfully exchange hits with them, making a mockery of all their attacks as she parried every single one, retributing with several jabs that took them down with ease.

They proceeded like that for a while. Soon having fully exited the storerooms and now entering some kind of office-space. At a distance, a faint hiss could be heard, persistent like the winds of the howling cliffs, and yet slightly different.

Moth took notice of this noise, slowly turning their head, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from.

“We should be approaching a window soon, then you’ll be able to see this city’s namesake” Hornet said, not offering a direct answer, which made Moth even more curious and excited.

Along with that sound, a low-pitched hum soon cut through it in the distance, sounding more and more distinctive as they approached its source. Moth instantly recognized who it belonged to, and bolted ahead to its source. 

“Moth! Come back this instant!” Hornet commanded, chasing after them as they turned a corner. 

There, hunched over atop a pile of scrapped map sketches, was Cornifer! Moth's unannounced appearance startled him and he was readying to roll on his feet and start running. This jerk reaction only lasted a second, however, as Moth was as far removed from a threat as one could be, at least in his eyes.

“WAah-! H-hello there, again, little one! For a second I mistook you for one of those maddened guards!” He said, slowly shifting back to his sitting position as if nothing had happened, “This city is quite impressive isn’t i- Oh” He staggered once again just as he saw Hornet entering the room. “I-I see you have company, huh?” He said shakily to Moth, who looked at Hornet in confusion. 

Hornet had arrived in a running stance, her needle was holstered but she could see how she would look threatening, and so she immediately straightened out her posture upon seeing Cornifer. “Oh, so you’re the one who caught Moth’s attention. I don’t intend to fight you,” She clarified straight-faced. “My apologies for frightening you days ago.”

“Ah… G-good.” Cornifer sighed in relief but still defensive, “I suppose I should introduce myself, then?… I am Cornifer, a cartographer by trade, c-currently working on mapping out Hallownest."

Moth was puzzled at what they were referring to, did Hornet attempt to attack Cornifer? She sure seemed to be very aggressive back when they met.

“I am Hornet, protector of Hallownest.” She declared placing her hand in her chest. “And this is Moth, my s...-companion” Moth twitched.

“Moth, huh? That’s an unusual name, but fitting, in a way.” Cornifer commented while resting his chalk on his lap. “I’ve wondered what to call them for some time now, they don’t seem to be a talking sort.” He added joyfully. Now that they thought about it, they could try to talk to him by writing like they had done earlier with Hornet!

“They were born mute.” Hornet blurted coldly.

“Ah... I understand. Do you also happen to know what pronouns they go by?”

“Um… I figured they were neutral, but I never... cared to ask...” Hornet said, a bit embarrassed for making such an assumption. “Moth, what pronouns- I mean, do you go by neutral pronouns?” She shifted the question so that it was a _yes/no_ one

Moth nodded affirmatively, in their journey they never really got a chance to get a grasp of what this pronoun deal was, all they had to go on were the bugs they had met until now… Cornifer was male, Elderbug was male, Iselda was female, Hornet was female... but as far as they were aware, they didn’t feel like either.

“Thank you! Well, I’ve encountered little Moth many times on my charting trips. In these lonely lands, they’re the closest I’ve got to a travel friend!” Moth felt themselves bounce with joy, for some reason the word "friend" still filled them with butterflies.

Hornet, on the other hand, looked awkward as ever. Her imposing figure and demeanor looked to have completely melted and she appeared… shrunken? Could it be that she still felt guilty over nearly killing them in Greenpath? Moth was still unsure what prompted her to do that, did they do something to wrong her? Thinking about it, maybe it had to do with her being “protector of Hallownest”, as she said. Maybe they were trespassing without even knowing it? But she left her supposed post and aided someone she was supposed to defeat, so wouldn’t that make her terrible at her job?

Nevertheless, now that mighty warrior whom Moth still had qualms on trusting was stumbling through a conversation with Cornifer of all bugs, shifting around like no position was comfortable.

Cornifer didn’t seem to be aware of that, and just leaned backward and scratched his chin, continuing from where he left off: “There’s also this masked fellow, he seemed pleasant but we didn’t talk much and he insisted he didn’t need a map… ah! speaking of which! I was about to ask if you’d like to take a look at my progress so far?” He directed the question at Moth, and before Hornet could intervene, Moth nodded enthusiastically. 

They sat beside Cornifer and pulled out their map and quill, using it to add onto their own map. Hornet took the opportunity to move somewhere, sitting on a chair she found in a corner. 

“I wish I had that convenient a source for ink, ho ho!” Cornifer quipped right as Moth dipped their quill in void. They nodded sympathetically, the void really was convenient for writing! They thought if it was possible to give Cornifer some of it. But then the first time he saw them use their void that way crossed their mind, and what his reaction was… 

Not unlike Hornet's, strangely. Moth often wondered about what kind of bug they were. That they weren't "normal" was no news, but their past was still such a mystery… All they could remember was being drawn to Hallownest by some strange calling… Whatever it may be, they somehow knew they would find it eventually, they just had to keep exploring and asking questions.

Moth stopped drawing their map and tried to think of something they could write to strike a conversation with Cornifer. That’s what friends do, right? Their quill approached the paper, then retracted, then approached again…

“Are you having trouble with your map?” Cornifer chimed after a while of this. A perfect opportunity! 

_“No. Thank you for asking!”_ Moth wrote, hoping their writing would entice Cornifer into a conversation.

“Oh ho! I didn’t know you could write! And with such lovely handwriting, too!” Cornifer remarked, making Moth bounce with joy. If they had the ability, they would no doubt be blushing.

Moth waited for him to say something else, but Cornifer just stood there, them both staring at each other for a while, until he eventually went back to his cartography… Should they say something? What should they even ask? Moth was far more used to others just ranting to them as they nodded along, their first actual conversation was the day before, for Wyrm’s sake!

Moth was defeated, they couldn’t think of anything to say so they just wrote _“Let’s talk about something!”_ in the paper and poked Cornifer to call for his attention, hoping that he would have more luck finding something to talk about.

“Sure! What do you wish to talk about?” Cornifer asked innocently, making Moth shake in frustration. How would they know talking to others was this hard? 

Finally, a topic blessed Moth’s mind.

 _“Did you meet…”_ Moth paused as they realized they didn’t know how Hornet’s name was supposed to be written… _“...the red lady before?”_ Yes, that would be good enough to get the point across.

“You mean Hornet? Yes, I have encountered her before…” Cornifer whispered then paused to create suspense. “...She pointed that needle of hers on me and told me to get out or else!” 

Hornet had done the same thing with Moth too! 

_“Did she attack you?”_ they wrote.

“No, she just walked off and disappeared. And as you can see I ignored her warnings, hah!” Cornifer laughed, yet a certain apprehension was tangible in his voice, especially after seeing the face he made when Hornet suddenly barged in the room.

“How much would you charge for a blank sheet of paper?” Hornet suddenly interjected, shouting from a chair on the other side of the room, making Cornifer shoot up again, gasping loudly for fear that she had heard what he just said. Moth didn’t even notice she had walked all the way over there and was rightfully startled too.

“A-ah! H-hmm, 20 geo? Do you plan on starting a map of your own?” he mumbled, eyes shot wide.

“No, I have no necessity for a map...” She answered vaguely, pulling a pouch full of geo “Would you mind selling me a lot of those?”

“Uh… s-sure!” Hornet bought off a bunch of sheets until she had an amount she considered sufficient, stacking them on top of eachother and examining them, then turning to Cornifer again. “Do you happen to have a pair of scissors?” 

Cornifer nodded and reached for his bag, pulling a pair of scissors from one of its pockets. Hornet took it, thanked Cornifer and moved back to her corner.

Cornifer and Moth took a while to process what had just happened, though soon they were back to exchanging smalltalk, mainly revolving around both bugs’ adventures and Cornifer’s stories from before he arrived in Hallownest, and also describing the city, which filled Moth with expectation. They in turn recounted their encounter with Hornet and their current mission, showing the silk bag containing the pieces of their nail which they intended to take to a nailsmith so he could repair it.

by now they had both finished their maps and it was hard to tell how much time had passed. Out of habit, Moth glanced at Hornet tucked in her corner, recoiling at the grizzly sight of her hunched over the chairs, crudely slashing away at its leather upholstery.

On the other side of the room, Hornet grabbed her small needle and focused on remembering her bookbinding lessons. The techniques were murky in her head but she still remembered just enough to not be completely lost, and the rest was filled in as she went. Weaving her silk around the pages roughly the way she remembered doing in her childhood. 

It was important for her folk to have a good grasp of the many arts of thread and silk. This included combat, but also knitting, and sewing, and bookbinding. The latter one being a fairly niche industry that skyrocketed among the spiders in the kingdom’s last days. Hornet let out a habitual sigh remembering her short time producing journals, scrolls and such for Hallownest’s literates. A fairly thankless job that nonetheless gave her some useful knowledge.

As she was tying the last few knots, she looked up and took a break from her work, only to see that both Cornifer and Moth were watching her in awe, completely captivated by her skill.

“Uh… How long have you… Have I been working on this?" Her eyes sparked with worry that she might have gotten lost in her work.

"About an hour and a half" Cornifer answered matter-of-factly, with no signs of a clock anywhere near him.

Hornet's eyes grew wide. _“h-how...”_ she mouthed to herself in incredulity.

Cornifer was quick to offer some comfort. "Don't worry, it wasn't a bother to us! Me and Moth shared a nice conversation together to pass the time!" Cornifer assured, misunderstanding the source of Hornet's anxiety as worry for them. 

She looked at Moth's map and saw that it had tons of scribbles and writings, confirming that indeed a lot of time must have passed. Snapping her out of her thoughts, again.

"Ah! Speaking of, I am already done with... this!" she said, hopping off her seat and holding up proudly a small journal in her hands, involuntarily stretching as she was sore from hunching over so long. "Here, Moth, see how you like it!".

Moth cautiously took the small notebook from her hands and flipped over the pages with mild confusion.

“Now you don’t need that cumbersome map if you ever need to write something!

A spark of realization came over Moth, bouncing excitedly they reached for their quill and wrote something on the first page, turning it so Hornet could read it.

_“Thank you!!!!”_. 

“I am pleased to have helped.” Hornet answered graciously, however not with a certain disappointment, which she hoped was not made visible.

As many exclamation points as they put in their thanks, Hornet couldn’t help but notice a certain hesitance in their demeanor. I mean, she shouldn’t expect the same fanfare as when they named themselves, but still… she kind of did.

“That is incredible, Moth!” Cornifer added, swinging up on his feet, “Unfortunately, I must sing my goodbyes now, but I'd love it if you could visit us sometime! Maybe we can have a chat without covering your map in text, hoho!”

“Huh? Where are you heading?” Hornet inquired.

“Back home! I don’t want Iselda to worry over me, you see. It was a pleasure meeting you, Hornet!” He said stretching his back and giving the two a hand wave before heading the way they had come prior. “Ah! And Moth, I guarantee you’ll love the rain! It is quite a treat!”

Indeed, the deafening sounds of downpour still rang loud even a few floors up the Capital Cavern’s ceiling.

Hornet signaled to Moth and together they made their way down the building, the rainfall’s sounds growing louder and louder. Finally, they climbed down a last set of stairs that faced directly into an immense window that showcased a truly breathtaking view of the city, in the past meant to be the first thing travelers incoming from the Pilgrim's way would see. Moth sprinted to it, pressing their mask firmly on the cold glass. The humidity could be felt even from within the enclosed floor, circling the air in refreshing waves that contrasted with the dead stillness of the rest of Hallownest.

Beyond the window, majestic buildings, bridges and aqueducts stretched as far as the eye could see, almost intentionally positioned so that this view would get the widest shot of the whole city. River-like canals circled around the city’s map, curving around roads, parks, and buildings; sometimes crossing below a bridge. Some of the towers stretched as far as the ceiling of the massive cavern, resembling pillars that undoubtedly played a part in why the capital cavern still stood after so long. While other, smaller towers had a ceiling of their own, curved so that the water would be guided down and adorned with numerous sharp decorative spikes reminiscent of the King’s crown. 

His highness envisioned every aspect from the smallest seals to the most magnificent architecture to remind all of his omnipresence, now serving merely as a reminder of his absence. Out in the distance, beyond the fog and rain, swarms of vengeflies and wandering infected replaced the sentient bugs that once bustled in and out of those faded buildings.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Hornet said, approaching Moth and observing the rain along with them. “It’s worrying, in a way. There used to be a ceiling blocking the water from the Blue Lake above, but it required constant maintenance. Now more and more water pours down. Inevitably, the ceiling will cave in, taking the city with it… We could be among the last ones to witness its beauty.” She said, vacantly drawing a hallownest seal in the condensed glass using her claw.

Up where the rain started, gigantic stalactites appeared to pierce the shattered remnants of a metal structure – once the cavern’s ceiling, that served to control the Blue Lake above’s leakage. 

Moth’s gaze shifted sorrowfully towards her, yet keeping their hands reclined on the windows, their posture somewhat deflated by Hornet’s somber lament. “Well, the old kingdom’s dead. Melancholy is just par for the course.” Hornet justified herself, wiping her drawing from the window before turning for the next set of stairs. 

“Come, we’re nearing the ground level. The rain is even prettier from down there!” She turned and then saw that Moth had their journal out. 

_“Are you okay?”_ They had written. Hornet furrowed her brow and looked directly at Moth, letting an exhausted frown do all the work of talking.

Down to the next level, husks and a sentry awaited. Hornet took on the challenge and skillfully maneuvered around them, dealing swift death to those undead bugs.

Down another, a flying sentry accompanied by more husks. A strange sight among such a cramped space, the sentry nonetheless remained remarkably agile. Still, Hornet took them down.

And another, a nest of belflies. There were two ways to deal with those: being extremely quick or being extremely careful, Hornet started out slowly taking them down from a distance, but by the end a few close calls happened when a belfly nearly exploded right next to her, an incident that could be attributed to impatience but also… because it was fun?

Next floor- 

“Hm? What is it, Moth?” Hornet inquired impatiently right as she was moving towards the next set of stairs.

Moth pointed towards the elevator curiously, as if wondering why they weren’t using it.

“Um… But aren’t you afraid of those? I don’t want you to fall off of it and split your head open again!!” Hornet cried out disgruntled.

Moth recoiled at her hyperbolic reaction, taking out their journal:

_“You said these didn’t shake so much, we could save time taking the elevator”_

Hornet felt like protesting but... she knew they were right, looking back she realized how many hours she had fleetingly lost by insisting Moth couldn’t take a normal (much less violent) elevator, and yet she still had something of a resistance to the idea. It shouldn’t be dangerous, it shouldn’t.

Maybe she was just... actually having a lot of fun taking care of all the threats in this building. How long had she gone without this essential thrill? It had been so long since she had a friendly spar with someone, or maybe even just a challenging fight. She unwittingly began taking out her pent up frustration on everyone else while still trying to repress it under the notion that she was somehow protecting Hallownest by doing that.

Thinking about it… it was probably why she acted _that_ way in Greenpath… and then in the crossroads, and basically everywhere since the second wave of infection commenced, all she did was take out her anger on those that didn’t deserve it.

“Let’s use the elevators then, I’ll hold you so you don’t fall.” The words labored out of her proud, heavy chest. She had just woken up a while ago, but as Moth made their way inside the small elevator cage, she felt like she needed more rest than ever.

She offered her hand to Moth and they extended theirs. Moth’s grasp was cold as ever yet Hornet felt a certain warmth to it, soothing her calloused hand from fighting so much in such a short period of time. She gave Moth a warning nod, and flipped the lever, they seemed to shiver at the initial jolt, but as she predicted, the elevator then began descending smoothly through the floors.

###  *****  
**

As they approached the floor level, the elevator hung through an overhang, although there should be no way for someone to fall over – as the elevator had a fence to prevent such a thing – Hornet still held tighter onto Moth’s hand. Moth bobbed excitedly upon seeing the rain directly. The cold humid air brushed through them both with such a fresh fragrance, it felt like an expensive perfume to Hornet’s nose, grown all too accustomed to the bittersweet and stagnant smell of amber decay.

Finally, with a soft thud, the two were at floor level. Moth rushed to the rain’s direction getting held in place by Hornet before they could go further.

“I know you’re excited. But you wouldn’t want your map, backpack and journal to get ruined now, would you?” She said taking hold of their backpack and extending her hand so that Moth would hand the other items over. “Also be careful not to fall on the canals.” She instructed.

They hurriedly handed her the items and ran over to the rain, Hornet staying behind to not get completely soaked. 

From afar, she watched Moth look up and around the rain, hopping and feeling it brush against their void skin, she wondered if their “wings” would get wet or if they could repel water somewhat. Either way she couldn’t help but be soothed by the sight of them having so much fun exploring an unfamiliar sensation, in this shadow of a place, almost like an omen. She looked up at the empty walkways and saw only empty windows and the ghosts of the city.

“Can we go now? We’re very close to our destination!” She said, now more relaxed but still trying to stay mindful of the time, to the best of her ability, at least.

She moved in the opposite direction to the rain down a long tunnel, Moth rushing to her side still elated from their watery adventure, droplets of water still hung on to their mask, but their wings were indeed completely dry. Before the two a large cavern stretched wide, distorted and suspended by a lining of mushrooms from the neighboring Wastes, completely covered the walls and ceiling of the cave in sharp contrast with the artificiality of the city behind. Long rocky pillars (also covered in mushrooms) formed by the merging of stalagmites and stalactites stretched so tall they seemed to curve outwards.

The thick greenish mist formed by the mushrooms’ pungent-smelling spores was only broken up by the warm light provenient from the windows of that place’s sole building. In the distance, the sound of repeated hammering rang like clockwork. 

Impressive that even a single bug aside from fungoons would dare call this place a home, and yet the edges of the city was the place chosen by the nailsmith to practice his craft.

They crossed the dilapidated bridges worn down by erosion and the cemetery of nails thrust into stone, Hornet ever careful to not allow Moth to get too close to the edge of the rocky structures.

They entered the illuminated shed and grabbed the attention of the residing bug, who up until that point was immersed into his task.

“Hornet. Back so soon? You can wait outside, I’ll sharpen your needle for you.” The bug grunted without looking up from his forge.

“I actually wish you’d fix my companion’s nail.” Hornet stated, leaning her head indicatively towards Moth and wrapping her claw on their backpack’s strip. Moth caught what she meant and unhanded the backpack by themselves, hesitating once the silky construct was in their hands. The nailsmith raised his gaze, and a single eyebrow.

“Please hand me the backpack so he can fix it, that’s what you want, right?” Hornet assured impatiently, nodding towards the nailsmith who at that point looked curious about the contents of the bag.

Moth looked at the backpack, and then at Hornet, finally deciding to hand it to her. Hornet sighed, and with a careful pull of a thread, the whole backpack came undone, taking care so that the nail pieces wouldn’t fall to the floor and break further.

The nailsmith’s face winced in mild shock “Um… This one is in bad shape, huh.” He grunted incredulously, looking up at Hornet silently wondering if he was being played for a fool, and yet that assumption conflicted with his view of Hornet, who wasn’t the prankster type. “W-wouldn’t it be better to just get a new nail?” He tentatively asked, afraid his suggestion was so obvious that he had to be missing something by saying it.

Moth looked anxiously at Hornet, holding their breath for her answer.

“No. It must be this one.” Hornet assured, reaching inside her coat and pulling from it a hefty amount of geo and also a clump of pale ore. “As always, money is no object, and I also request that you not only fix it, but also improve upon its blade.”

“Huh…” He took the geo and pale ore, still holding on to a puzzled frown, “Fine, you two can wait on the bench outside.” He grunted, collecting the nail pieces.

*******

Hornet sat and felt a wave of relief wash through her, her sore legs finally allowed to rest and her mind finally given some time to reflect, it had been so long since she had such a high number of fights one after another, and even though she was tired, she also felt incredibly renewed.

She went so long without this essential thrill… Was that, perhaps, why she lashed out so hard on those weaker creatures? On the vessels? How foolish of her to assume her obligations required her to forsake her well-being, her pleasure, and happiness. When one’s duty is always to oneself first and to their job second.

Looking into the distance she realized that she already had so much to think about in her journey, and to be honest, she didn’t have much else to do. 

Really, she wanted to avoid thinking about her dream, but in the back of her head she knew there was a genuine possibility that she was infected. Merely giving the idea some consideration sent a shiver down her spine and yet… it was possible. Her thoughts fluttered to the image of the dripping tik-tiks. She had spent long enough watching the kingdom die to know how it starts, how it progresses… how it ends.

Was she… was she afraid to check?

Her thoughts were once again interrupted by Moth tugging on her cloak. It seemed this happened all the time! But then again making them dependent on her for protection and the fact she was lost in thought at every other moment probably increased the chances of it happening. She turned her attention with a sigh, fixating on the writing on Moth’s notebook, presented to her.

_“I’m sorry for slowing you down.”_

“Ah! No no it wasn’t your fault! I’m guessing I got a bit too excited battling all those bugs back there…” She quickly assured, still, she was so unnecessarily harsh on Moth all the way… no wonder they might have felt that way.

“It was my fault, I’m just… stressed. For so long I tried to protect this kingdom not realizing how it was deteriorating from the inside… Thinking about it the moment bugs became infected again I should have known this plan was a bust! And yet I kept holding on to the hope that it would pass. That Hallownest would rise again. Now I see that the vessel’s mission was fundamentally doomed.

And now I suppose I have some sort of a lead again? Well I had a dream and… in it someone communicated that I should head to the resting grounds and bring you along. But of course we don’t have unlimited time and I’ll eventually need to sleep, and if I’m not sleeping in an appropriate place…” Hornet threw up her arms finally “Well I don’t know what might happen! That’s why I’ve been in such a rush today, you see?!”

Hornet finished her ramble visibly panting, Moth nodded understandingly, reaching for their journal to write something in it. 

_“Are you close to one of those places? We can sleep now.”_

“That’s very thoughtful of you, but I feel we’ll be better off rushing there, I rarely go there but I feel it should be safe anyways, since there are not many bugs there, especially not the infected kind…”

Moth nodded and then cautiously approached their pen to their journal, hesitating to write whatever was on their mind. Finally they began writing, taking a while for them to finish as they kept erasing and writing stuff again, enough for Hornet’s anxieties to rise, and upon seeing what they wrote, it only got worse:

_“You were talking while you slept. You kept saying strange things but you also called me your sibling. Are you my sister?”_

“Y-yes,” Hornet admitted in surprise as her eyes watered, still trying to gauge what Moth’s feelings about this were. Still she figured this was the time for them to know. 

Moth looked at her and then to the floor, processing what they had been told, no doubt they had tons of questions flowing through their mind.

_“So you know where I came from? My parents?”_

“Yes. Though details of your origin are murky even to me… also by now I figured you’ve seen beyond this kingdom’s bounds, right? You must not have any memory from here”

Moth shook their head.

“I can say for certain that you are the child of the old king and queen of this place, and that you were created as a tool to fulfill a purpose, but another of your siblings got chosen instead.” Hornet explained, trying to avoid the gruesome details. “To fulfill that purpose would require that you and your siblings don’t have a mind to think, however it seems both you and them were faulty in that regard. And before you ask, I am only your half-sister, as we don’t share the same mother, and I was never imbued with void as you were... and so the conditions of my existence are very different than yours.”

Silence took hold for a while, and the nailsmith’s hammer began ringing from within his cabin as he moulded and fixed Moth’s nail.

“Now answer me something…” Hornet started. “You exited the kingdom, what did you do out there? And how and why did you get back?”

Moth approached their pen on the parchment and struggled to think of anything. _“I don’t remember? One day it was like I instinctively went here.”_

“Huh…” They both sat silently for a while more, they didn’t say it, but in their heads both knew that going to the resting grounds was their best shot at answering their lingering questions. For now, they sat silent as the sound of hammering came from inside, and soon, the sound of scratching on parchment came with it.

_“After we go to the resting grounds, can we visit Cornifer?”_

“You made friends quick here, huh” Hornet commented, pitying herself a little. “Sure! I’m sure he’ll like a visit from the bug who threatened him with a sharp object. Thinking about it, I do that a lot huh.” Hornet mentioned light-heartedly, not without a pang of guilt with it.

Moth placed their hand where their mouth would be, bobbing their head imitating laughter.

“We’ll probably have to leave it to some other day, though.” She added “Here, give me your map.”

She took the map from Moth’s hands and unveiled it, many different areas of the city were expertly drawn, with a little drawn marker where that window they found was, and the symbol of a nail marking where they were right now.

it also seemed they had taken the time to erase all their messages to Cornifer, and yet…

“You didn’t erase those, huh” Hornet commented, pointing at the messages they exchanged in Greenpath. Moth nodded and it was clear they didn’t have the intention to do so so soon. 

Looking at the map Hornet could project that those messages went right over where a far corner of Deepnest would go... right above her village. She shook the thought off and regained her train of thought.

“I feel like you shouldn’t be blindly following me, so I’ll outline our route to you.” She looked at Moth to make sure they paid attention, pressing her claw above the nailsmith’s hut. “We’re here, so we’ll take the elevator back up to the storerooms since we’ve seen those are safe” She said, defeatedly dragging her claw up the building she had spent hours fighting down. “Then we’ll call your stag friend on that station and go to _Greenpath_ first.”

Moth threw their head aback, looking mildly confused but letting Hornet continue.

“There, we’ll make ourselves a decent meal for once, I have a camp set up right over here where we can cook something. After we’re done with that we’ll return to the Stag, and _then_ move over to the Crossroads, from there it should only be a short walk until we get to the Resting Grounds…” Hornet hesitated with her claws over a tram station and then continued. “...Then we’ll see what happens there, if it was all a fluke, at least there’s the silver lining that it’s safe to sleep.” She sighed looking at Moth, who nodded along her directions.

_“Let’s hope we get the answers we seek there.”_

Hornet felt lighter upon reading this, she still had a lead and some hope, she shouldn’t be pessimistic before waiting and seeing. Still, she felt like holding her breath too much could only lead to disappointment, for now, she’d be tentatively optimistic.

A voice came from within the cabin. “You can come in now!” Moth hopped off the bench and rushed to the inside, as Hornet stayed behind for a moment. She threw a glance at her needle, resting on her lap, and then at the cabin’s entrance – Moth had already entered. Cautiously she pressed her claw against its tip until it broke through her exoskeleton, bringing her hand closer to her eye, she watched a drop of pure cerulean blood grow until it ran her hand and dripped into her cloak. She sighed relieved: not a flick of orange.

“Uniting the pieces back together required some work, and the blade itself was duller than a lamp post, but I tried to stay true to your request that it remain the same nail.” The nailsmith said, handing the blade wrapped in cloth to Moth, who excitedly pulled it out of its wrapping and held it in their tiny arms. “I have also used the Pale Ore handed to me to add a channel to it, it should be much more efficient and deadly now.”

The quality of the nailsmith’s work impressed even Hornet. She could see tiny, near-invisible ridges where the nail had snapped, which remained the only evidence she had that this was indeed the same nail. Looking at Moth, for a moment she could almost see their eyes sparkle as they swiveled the nail and marveled at its new look.

“Thank you very much for your services.” Hornet bowed, making her way to the exit.”

“It was my pleasure, and please never let a nail get to that condition again.” He said as the two got out.

“Moth” Hornet called out before they went rushing ahead of her. “Please let me deal with any enemies, and only draw your nail as an emergency measure in case we’re separated, you hear me?”

Moth was disappointed, but hesitantly conceded, still keeping their nail in their hands. Hornet thought about sparring with them to gauge their skill, but for now that would take too long, and would touch on some freshly healed wounds she’d rather let be for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small bugs have anxiety, what's new? Anyways I truly hope you folks are having fun! The next chapter shall definitely, DEFINITELY, be less angsty! Sad brain will totally not hijack it again!
> 
> Special thanks to all my friends on our little Hollow Knight server for the tips! This chapter ended up being waay longer than I ever planned to, so it'd be a pleasure to hear what's your favourite part was!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading a chapter! Your comments are veru much appreciated, *especially* if you aren't completely up to date quite yet! Hearing opinions on different chapters is an absolute delight!


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